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LOS ANGELES >> From Stadium to the Sea they ran Sunday, the more than 22,000 who rose before the city had awakened, or perhaps when it was just going to bed, to will themselves from Dodger Stadium to the Santa Monica Pier in the

Los Angeles >> Nick Matulich was a heroin addict for much of his life and has been homeless for more than a year but that didn’t stop him Sunday from keeping a promise to himself. After training on a treadmill for about three months while enrolled in a men’s drug and alcohol recovery program in Arleta, Matulich completed his first marathon and did so in about six hours.

SANTA MONICA >> Blake Russell finally found a way to finish a marathon. The 39-year-old last completed a 26.2-mile race at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She finished 27th. After having two children, she failed to finish marathons in Boston and then New York.

It has been 19 years since an American has won the L.A. Marathon. Africans and Eastern Europeans have consistently taken the 26.2-mile race. But when several of the top runners in the world line up for the 30th annual race on Sunday at Dodger Stadium, the possibility than an American can be the first to the finish line along the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica is a distinct possibility.

LOS ANGELES >> The Los Angeles Marathon has sold out for the third straight year, with over 26,000 runners from all 50 states and over 55 countries registered for the March 15 race. Marathon officials said Monday that those numbers represent the second-largest LA Marathon field ever.

Southern California’s best marathon racer will be trying to refuel a hometown swagger in the L.A. Marathon on March 15. “I can’t tell you how much a cheering fan means to me,” said Ryan Hall, who will run in the 26.

Joe Furin has experienced the serenity of his own personal Bruce Springsteen concert. Well, technically, the boss and saxophonist Clarence Clemons got carried away during a sound check. The general manager of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has also witnessed the chaos of 25,000 USC football fans descending onto the field he considers his office.

SANTA MONICA — Gebo Burka and Amane Gobena seemed to make their moves to win the 29th annual ASICS L.A. Marathon in unison Sunday. Running separately, they charged to the lead in their respective races during the 22nd mile along a slight incline on San Vicente Boulevard.

The ASICS LA Marathon course came alive Sunday morning with spectators cheering on the nearly 22,000 people that started the run from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica. Live music, dancers and energetic Angelenos attempted to give marathon participants a needed boost of motivation as they trudged on towards the finish line.

Gebo Burka of Ethiopia pulled away from a persistent Lani Rutto of Kenya to win the 29th annual ASICS L.A. Marathon men’s race on Sunday morning. Burka and Rutto broke away from the lead pack, which ran a somewhat pedestrian pace early on, and the 26-year-old made his move with five miles to go and held off several challenges from Rutto to win in a personal best 2 hours, 10 minutes, 37 seconds.

Amane Gobena of Ethiopia used a fast early pace and a late charge to win the women’s race in the 29th annual ASICS L.A. Marathon on Sunday morning. Gobena won the 26-mile, 385-yard race, which started at Dodger Stadium and finished in Santa Monica along the Pacific Ocean, a few blocks from the pier, in 2 hours, 27 minutes, 37 seconds.

SANTA MONICA — Twenty-five thousand. That’s the number of entrants for this year’s L.A. Marathon. But we all know that in a race, only one person can finish first. So with that, here are some of the unofficial awards from Sunday’s 29th running of the L.

LOS ANGELES >> Participants in the ASICS LA Marathon and their supporters had to contend Sunday with tighter security, daylight saving time and unseasonably warm weather, but the mood was still festive and mostly upbeat throughout the race from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica.

It is a moment of Olympic symbolism. The Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games are more than two years away and the U.S. Olympic Trials in the marathon are 23 months away. That makes Sunday the perfect time for Aaron Braun to compete in his first marathon.

Michael Kwinn sat at his son’s bedside, holding the boy’s hand as the child he’d loved and cherished for more than 14 years drew his last breath. “And he’s been with me every day since,” said Kwinn of his son, also named Michael, who died of a brain tumor in 2003.

The L.A. Marathon will traverse through various parts of Los Angeles on Sunday and as a result will block of various streets from Downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica. For more on those street closures, check out the map above or go to this link:

The 81-year-old legs of Dr. Moses Christian have carried him across the finish line of the L.A. Marathon 19 times. And this Sunday they’ll do it again, just at a slower pace. Christian, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer two decades ago, will walk the 26.

For the more than 25,000 runners taking part in Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon, the first signs of the tightened security procedures they will face will come Friday and Saturday when they pick up their registration packets at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

HIDDEN HILLS >> Shannon Farar-Griefer started running marathons at age 35 and her first of five 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathons from Death Valley to Mount Whitney — billed as the toughest race in the world — five years later.